The Rolling Stones beat The Beatles to San Diego by a few months, but the Stones' 1965 debut at downtown's Golden Hall did not create nearly as big a stir as the perpetually Fab Four's Aug. 28, 1965, concert at Balboa Stadium.

"It was the talk of the town," said veteran San Diego rock drummer Joel Kmak, who took up the drums after seeing Ringo Starr play with The Beatles. "I asked to go, but I was just in grade school and my parents said 'No way.' But I still remember the day they played here, even though I didn't go."

"The screaming of the audience was overwhelming," recalled veteran San Diego musician and promoter Gary Rachac, who at the time was a 12-year-old student at Linda Vista's Montgomery Junior High School. "You could just hear the beginning of the songs, then the screaming drowned them out."

Even so, memories of the Fab Four's lone area performance still ring loud and clear for many fans -- young, old and in between -- in San Diego and around the world. To help you re-live that night (if you're old enough), or get a feel for it (if you're not), here's a primer on the day The Beatles played Balboa. And if you attended, please share your memories with us by adding your comments at the end of this post.

TICKETS

Tickets cost $3.50, $4.50 and $5.50 each.

EMPTY SEATS

While 27,014 tickets were available for The Beatles' concert here, only 17,013 fans turned out for the show. The band's pay? $50,135.17, just $135.17 more than the $50,000 the group was guaranteed for the performance.

Located adjacent to San Diego High School and City College, Balboa Stadium had an official capacity of 34,500. Most of the stadium was torn down in 1979 but it is still used for high school and recreational sports team games.

BACKSTAGE REFRESHMENTS

The Beatles requested, and received: four cots and sets of clean sheets; five 1-gallon bottles of water; 10 dozen paper cups; two cases of soda pop; two tubs of fried chicken; 24 assorted sandwiches; three portable TV sets; and a rented piano. Total cost for backstage food: a whopping $33.96.

SECURITY

Balboa Stadium had a 4-foot-high Cyclone fence around the perimeter of the field, which no one -- except the 150 policemen on hand -- was permitted to be on. Nevertheless, some determined fans jumped over the fence in futile attempts to reach the stage.

"There were all kinds of cops who were chasing the kids down, one by one, and tackling them," recalled veteran San Diego percussionist Randy Hoffman in a 2005 Union-Tribune interview. "I think the cops were probably better than the Chargers were in those days."

That sentiment was seconded in a 1984 San Diego Union interview I conducted with former San Diego Police Chief Ray Hoobler, who in 1965 was "a brand new police lieutenant" and oversaw security at The Beatles' concert here.

"We had limited problems," Hoobler recalled in that 1984 interview. "...I remember one youngster scaled the fence and ran out onto the playing field, and Officer Rufino Yaptangco made one of the finest open field tackles I've ever seen. There were 18,000 in attendance, and the noise was damned near debilitating. It was bedlam.

"It was, by today's standards, a well-behaved crowd, that spoke well for the youth of San Diego.

"I wouldn't let my two daughters, who were 13 and 15 at the time, go to the concert. It created a lot of dissension, but based on the news clips of the concerts at other locations, I didn't know what to expect.

"It was quite a learning experience and when I walked away, I had a more enlightened attitude about Beatlemania, and a very positive attitude about the youngsters in our community."

If you want more details about the day The Beatles came to San Diego, check out longtime fan and Fab Four collector Chuck Gunderson's comprehensive account here.And, if you went, don't forget to tell us all about it.